Thanks, Wanda! I looked in a couple of nurseries and a big box store, but didn't see any (except ferns, which I'll likely buy there.) There were other salvias, but not black and blue. I know Turk's Cap will likely make an appearance later in the season, but I'm leaning toward the variegated type, which I haven't seen in widely available in past years (though in a different state.) And I want them planted sooner so that they can grow and flower by the time summer is in full swing. I'd love to visit and browse more nurseries, but with a toddler and baby and being a one-car family, I don't seem to find the time to do that. Unless I know for sure that a nursery would have them, but I haven't found that yet. I'm definitely open to suggestions on where to look though!

Yeah, I started my broccoli from seed too late this winter, and it bloomed last week on that warm day, so it's pretty much out of the question this late. Like 'mams' said, I just planted seeds for carrots, potatoes, and radishes. Some baby lettuce and spinach, but I'm not sure they'll produce much before it warms up... Your summer plants (tomatoes, beans, cucumber, peppers) can be started from seed inside, but not put out until it stays reliably over 50-55 at night, usually late April or early May (especially peppers, they need that warmth). Being very lazy, I will not start inside, I'll just put seed in the ground in April or buy seedlings in April. For seeds, that shortens the length of production and harvest, but as I said, lazy. Nurseries and hardware stores are starting to stock pepper/tomato/bean seedlings now, but it's pretty early. They will mostly survive, but waiting a bit will get you healthier, more productive plants. As for zuchs, you can plant seeds directly outside as early as now. They are a bit more cold tolerant than the other summer standards. If buying zuch seedlings, maybe not now, but sooner than the others (early april?) On a side note, I'm trying brussels sprouts here in Sunnyvale for the first time. I planted in fall, and they've been sort of overwintering (not growing much, but staying alive). Does anyone know if I they will still grow into summer? I've always thought of them as not very heat tolerant, and If they're gonna end up not producing anything, I could use the space for the afore mentioned zucchini seed planting...

Green, or English, peas should already have been planted, and should be flowering and/or bearing peas now. You could try planting them now, especially since we've been having all this cold weather. But if things warm up and stay warm, you might not get any peas because it might be too warm. English peas are a cool season crop. Beans are different. They like warm soil. If you put them in the ground and it's too cool, most of them will eventually sprout, but germination won't be as good as if you had just waited for consistently warm weather. Also, it's possible to stunt the growth of your bean plants by planting them too soon, if we have cold spells after they've started growing. This is especially true for lima beans. (I'm not so sure about green beans as I don't grow them). I always wait until May to plant my climbing lima beans, and even then I'm not in a hurry. When they sprout and start to grow, they'll more than make up for lost time. And since I plant climbers, they'll continue to produce beans all summer, right up to the first hard frost (and sometimes even after that, if I can get them covered or if they're growing in a protected area). Field peas (crowder peas, black-eyed peas, and the like) are also warm-season crops. They, too, should be planted after the soil has warmed up and the temperatures are consistently warm. The way things are going right now, it's anyone's guess when that will be!

All matrices of growing plants do produce organic matter, long after initial planting. Although we may tend to think of plant roots as static, permanent structures, the fine "feeder" roots, which do the actual absorption of water, with nutrients dissolved in that water, are replaced numerous times during the course of a single growing season. All this sloughed-off root system is organic matter, and this is the reason, for example, that old, well-established park lawns can often look pretty good even though there are almost no inputs in terms of fertilizers. If there are trees in the area, those too are growing/dying/sloughing off the active portions of their root systems over the course of a single year. So I can't agree that once applied, the gradual loss of organic matter via decomposition is a one-way street headed to OM depletion. That's not what I see, and if one were to, say, mulch over the top, with wood chips, bark, cocoa hulls, pine straw, name your organic material....this too is easily enough to maintain the OM content through time. None of which should be taken to indicate that amending holes at time of planting, for such relatively permanent plants as trees and shrubs, is a good idea. It's not, and the drainage anomalies are the reason. If the plant came in a ball of highly organic potting medium, water will not move into that course material until all the surrounding finer-textured soil is saturated. If for whatever reason, the transplant came with very fine soil and is then planted into a courser soil, it will be prone to being inundated with water. Water cannot move from fine textured soils to coarse-textured ones until the fine stuff is completely saturated. You don't want such issues to be plaguing your plantings. I also install large areas of bedding plants, ie. flower beds, and there, the incorporation of well-cured compost is simply an amazing improvement, with one caveat: Some species you may wish to grow actually will perform better in a dry, lifeless, almost sterile soil. Adding compost to beds where you wish to grow such plants will often yield big, floppy plants which can't hold themselves up, and which often do not produce flowers. But for all other cases, it works wonders. +oM